Hazing, Nicknames and Targets
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Pride's bar needs a nickname, and Brody needs to thank him. (2x01 tag)


**New season, new stories! This one is random, and is pairing free (though it hints at all three of my mains). So. Welcome back to the show!  
Shin xx**

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They were all gathered around as the night wore on, and each of them was finding their own favourite corner of Pride's new bar. Brody was finding she liked this spot by the piano, she could see everything and she felt like she was in the middle of everything. The team were all stood around, just smiling and watching as their friends chatted, at least until Patton spoke up. "So, what are we gonna call this place?"

"What do you mean?" Percy was the first one to ask, though it was the question that everyone had been thinking. Pride had a name for it, though Brody's memory was playing tricks on her and wasn't figuring it out whatsoever.

"We need a nickname for this place." Patton looked around them and motioned to the people in the room. "A name just for us, the family, so that we don't have any randomers following us here." Patton's thought made sense, in a strange way. The NCIS team was fairly visible in New Orleans, and they would need somewhere to hang out that wasn't just their office.

"What do you suggest?" Brody asked. She had no ideas herself, other than to just call it Pride's place, which she would probably end up doing no matter what they ended up nicknaming it, or Pride ended up naming it. Him running a jazz bar just seemed totally him.

"I'd go for ' _The Enterprise_ '." Sebastian spoke up, and after a shocked second, everyone in the bar burst out laughing, not one of them could keep a straight face. She should have known that something from Star Trek would be on Sebastian's mind, especially since his ten minute discussion about how Pride's new look made him look like Captain Archer.

"Well of course you would." LaSalle commented, the first one to get his voice back enough after the laughing fit. Every single one of them was happy that, no matter what happened, you could always depend on Sebastian to be a nerd.

"Not _Voyager_ then Sebastian?" That was the only other Star Trek ship she could remember the name of, she was certain there were others, but she couldn't remember them for some reason. She would look them up on google when she got home, and probably kick herself for not remembering.

"No, it doesn't feel like a _Voyager_." He said, and that caused everyone but Percy to crease over laughing again. It seemed their newest agent wasn't quite sure exactly what was going on, or why everyone was laughing.

"I'm not going to ask." She eventually ended up saying, which caused another round of laughter as Loretta came over to them, leaving Dr. John and Pride talking near the bar. Two musicians who clearly had a lot to talk about.

"Merri, I haven't seen you outside of work since you were away, DC right?" Loretta said, and for a moment Brody had almost completely forgotten about her trip three months earlier. She'd taken a week off to go and visit Gibbs in DC, the only person who had known who she was visiting had been Pride. Everyone else she'd left in the dark, and she still had no real intention of telling any of them.

"Yeah, I went to visit an old friend. He was sick." She shrugged a little, not wanting to expand on it any further really. There was no actual need for anyone to know more than what she'd already told them, and there was also no need for anyone to question her. That didn't stop them though.

"Is he well again now?" Loretta asked with a smile, and for a second Brody wondered if maybe Pride had told her who Brody had gone to see and why. Though everyone in NCIS had known that Gibbs had been shot and almost died.

That was at least a good thing. She could report that all was well with her 'friend' and she knew Loretta wouldn't push. Her other colleagues, on the other hand. They would continue to push until they forgot about it."Yeah, he's good now."

"Are you ever going to tell us who you went to see?" LaSalle asked, clearly having been listening to Brody and Loretta's conversation. She didn't blame him, and was absolutely certain that, eventually, this was going to come out. Not now though, or at least, she wasn't going to say.

"No." She said simply then shook her head and looking away. Hoping that LaSalle would leave it at that, though really, that was complete and utter wishful thinking. LaSalle only stopped when he was bored, and that clearly wasn't now.

"You came back and decided on a new look." He commented with a smirk, and she knew he'd been trying to figure out her 'mystery' decision to grow out her hair since she'd started. The truth was she'd been fed up, and that was why a change had come. "Must have been a good week?"

"He was sick LaSalle." She rolled her eyes and groaned. Of course he would be the one who wouldn't at all get that there was nothing more to it than that. Or at least, not that she was ever going to share. What happened in private, stayed in private. "I was there to help him, and give him someone different to see other than his friends."

"So it was definitely a guy?" LaSalle smirked, and she just rolled her eyes and looked away again. This was not entirely something that she was in the mood for, although, she was quite happy that LaSalle was still teasing her. It gave her some hope he was moving on from what had happened to Savannah.

"The hazing never ends then?" Percy asked with a slightly worried look on her face. The team had been going pretty hard on her since she joined, but her attitude hadn't helped them feel like they should stop with the hazing. Maybe Brody would cut back a little, only because she knew how wearing it could get.

"I've been here 15 months, hasn't stopped yet." She agreed in the end, at least hers now was all about the men in her life. Mostly LaSalle teased her about her strange relationship with James, but also anyone who she might even possibly be interested in.

"Brody, that ex-fiancé of yours isn't in DC after his stint in Dubai is he?" LaSalle was clearly thinking of who he knew in her life would she travel that far to see at short notice. He wasn't going to guess, but she did like watching him try.

"Wait, ex-fiancé?" Percy's confusion caused them all, even Loretta, to burst out laughing again. For some reason everyone reacted the same when they found out she'd been engaged. Disbelief quickly followed by that knowing nod.

"Yeah Brody was engaged once, hooked up with him again earlier in the year." That was not how she would have characterised what had happened in March, but it was as good an explanation as any, really. They were working on things, an open thing, but a thing nonetheless. Something that worked for them both. LaSalle did enjoy bringing James up though, regularly. "They seemed cozy."

"Go to hell LaSalle. And no, he's still in Dubai." She actually hated that he was in Dubai, because all this would have been easier to work out if he weren't. The time difference didn't make it easy.

"Was worth a shot." LaSalle clearly decided, and she wasn't going to keep this conversation up. It wasn't something she particularly wanted to talk about at the moment anyway.

She just shook her head and laughed again. While she appreciated his tenacity in most situations, this one was just driving her nuts. "LaSalle, even if it were James, I still wouldn't tell you. Excuse me." She decided that escaping that and talking to Pride now he was alone was going to be a better use of her time, and probably a good chance for her to remind him how dangerous all this was, for all of them. "Hey, Pride."

"Hi." He smiled as she walked over to him, and then handed her another bottle and leant on a stool. "What's on your mind?" He clearly knew she wanted to say something. He'd always been good at knowing that. Just like the others she let get close.

"You're not worried... about this bounty?" She had to ask, even though she knew the answer. Seeing his reaction would tell her far more about this than his words would, but clearly he was content right now to just shrug it off.

"If someone wants me dead they want me dead, there isn't much I can do to change it now." OK. That was a good point. The mission was in the past and there was little to nothing any of them could do to change it. Yes, it would be a hard time, but if Pride wasn't worried, she wasn't either. "I know you've still got my back."

"You proved today you still got ours." She knew that LaSalle wasn't too keen still on what had happened, but she understood why he had done it. It had been to save them. "Shooting LaSalle was a risky move."

"I knew I could take the shot and protect you both." He smiled as he took another drink, and she thought about it again for a second. Ever since she'd moved here there had always been one thing that stayed the same. Pride having their backs.

"You had our backs, like always." She smiled and held her bottle out to toast his. She was very happy that he reached out and clinked his bottle to hers. "You promise me, you'll be careful though. Especially when you're alone."

"I promise." He rubbed her arm and smiled a little, and that made her feel a little better, and like he was actually taking it seriously. Sometimes he was a little flippant when he was the one in danger, and that made her worry. Pride was one of her boys, and when you were in that club it was hard to leave. That was why she'd been in DC in June, and why she was here now. They'd figure it out, together, but they all knew that from now, they were all targets.


End file.
